


Drop Dead, Gorgeous

by Mercey



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Stripper/Exotic Dancer, F/M, I Can't Believe I Wrote This, Shenanigans, These Characters are my babies, barista blue, gansey is stripped (ha) of his cash, keeping this relatively PG for my own sake, stripper gansey, they navigate the broke life together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-10-15
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:20:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 17,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26334760
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mercey/pseuds/Mercey
Summary: ‘Jane.’Blue spun around, eyes wide when she caught sight of his bronze briefs. ‘I was beginning to think you were pranking me,’ she said, voice slightly raised to be heard over the music.‘Would that have been preferable?’ Gansey asked.Blue shook her head. ‘Absolutely not. I despise being pranked.’Or: Gansey's a stripper and it's the one thing Blue respects about him.
Relationships: Richard Gansey III/Blue Sargent, Ronan Lynch/Adam Parrish
Comments: 72
Kudos: 103





	1. Mr. Diamond-Wrapped-In-Foil

**Author's Note:**

> GOD I KNOW THIS IS CURSED, JUST LET ME HAVE MY FUN AND I'M SORRY.
> 
> Thanks be to [justadreamfox](https://archiveofourown.org/users/justadreamfox/works) for being an awesome beta <3

Every day Blue Sargent caught the train. Same time, same carriage, same seat. All her life, Blue had sworn off routines and predictability. Her teenage self would curl her lip in disgust if she could see her now.

Blue worked in a book cafe, just a fifteen minute train ride from her apartment, which sat right alongside the tracks. The wrong side of the tracks. She had the same shift, the same schedule; the same day played on a continuous loop with minor interruptions to the regularly scheduled program that was her life. Losing yourself to monotony was one of the worst ways to die—as Blue was coming to learn—because no one ever noticed that you were dying at all, least of all yourself. 

The jolting of the train jostled the pencil in Blue’s hand, making the rough sketch of her mother look wobbly. Blue was only drawing from memory, but the upside-down mushroom on the page certainly wasn’t Maura Sargent’s nose.

Blue was attacking the splodge with an eraser when she was interrupted. ‘Hi there.’ Blue looked up, meeting the gaze of a man with warm brown eyes the same colour as his trench coat. Strangely, Blue imagined that his eyes had been made to match the coat rather than the other way around. It was worn, lint-covered, and had possibly been brown before the man in front of her’s eyes could even consider their pigmentation.

Blue’s eyes narrowed. She liked to have at least some long-distance eye-contact before speaking to a stranger on the train, but for some reason she disregarded that rule just this once. 

‘Hi.’

The beaming smile she got in return was entirely unwarranted. ‘What are you drawing?’ the man asked, peering over the seat between them to glance down at Blue’s sketch.

Blue bristled. ‘It’s not really any of your business, is it?’ A bally old coat and a metro pass couldn’t fool her once the man had spoken; she knew old money when she heard its rounded diphthongs, and old money often came with entitlement as a package deal.

The man huffed a laugh and raised his hands in surrender, swivelling back around to face the front of the train and pulling out a kindle. Blue scoffed disdainfully at the sight of it, but was stopped from saying something when the electronic voice monotonously announced that her stop was up next. 

The train was mercifully not a significant part of Blue’s day and, without another glance at Mr. Diamond-Wrapped-In-Foil, she left.

~

Work was slow. Everyone seemed either too busy or too good to hang out in book cafes on Thursdays. Even if this one was exceptionally cozy, with dark, panelled floor boards, a fireplace, and bookshelves lining every wall. Though Blue knew she could rely on the usuals: Jesse, who liked the book cafe because he could be around books without being scolded for his booming voice; Adam, who had one class in the morning and one in the afternoon, could drink about four cups of black coffee in the interim, and always tipped generously; and Orla, Blue’s cousin who took great joy in pretending to read something random from the shelves while actually pestering Blue about her love-life.

Well, her sex-life. Orla wasn’t all that concerned with a fickle thing like love. The cousins had that in common. 

‘Blue-Blue!’ Orla cried in delight as she entered, guided by Adam, her arm through his. 

‘Hey, Orla. Having a good day?’

Orla hummed enthusiastically as Adam led her to her usual spot on the couch. ‘Oh yeah, this hot guy on the bus was being all chivalrous and getting me to take his arm, then he walked me all the way here and—’ Orla made what could only be described as a moan and Blue faked a grimace, mainly for the other patrons’ benefit. In truth, she was relieved to hear Orla sounding like herself. She’d only lost her sight two years prior and they’d all learned the hard way that even Orla could fall prey to depression. 

When Blue had moved out here for work, Orla had insisted on coming along, convinced that if they both did something new together they could help each other. The move had helped Orla immensely, and she was now living in a communal house with three other girls, one of whom was also legally blind. She was doing well with them and Blue could only be glad for it, even if it meant she was now living alone and paying double the rent.

‘Were you like this before you went blind?’ Blue joked. ‘I can’t remember.’

Orla’s delighted laughter made Blue smile and she directed it at a blushing Adam as he cautiously approached. Blue liked Adam. She liked the way he carried himself. He was endlessly polite and appreciative, and he always came to their little cafe at 10am on a Thursday like clockwork. 

‘Hey, Blue,’ he said softly. ‘Sorry for the interruption, can I get my usual?’

Blue was about to reply when Orla gasped from the couch. ‘Oh my god! It’s the hot guy! I knew I recognised your voice!’

The tips of Adam’s ears burned as he sputtered a laugh. 

From across the room, Jesse said in his “inside voice,” ‘I THOUGHT YOU COULDN’T SEE?’

‘Blue?’ Orla asked.

Aggrieved, Blue pursed her lips and considered Adam’s physiognomy. The sandy hair, the bright blue eyes, the strong jaw. Her gaze dropped to his chiseled shoulders and defined biceps. ‘Hot,’ she eventually decided and watched Adam’s blush creep over his cheeks before turning around to put a cup under the coffee machine.

Orla let out a victorious whoop. ‘I may be blind but I still got it. So, how ‘bout it, handsome?’

In Blue’s experience, guys who looked like Adam didn’t often stutter in the face of flirtation, but Adam certainly did. ‘I— um— I hope I didn’t give you the wrong impression,’ he said, gracious as usual. ‘I’m seeing someone already.’

‘Damn,’ Orla said, but she was smiling. ‘You sure? I could give your pretty girlfriend a run for her money.’

‘Orla!’ Blue squawked, horrified.

Adam chuckled. ‘I think my boyfriend might object to being called “pretty,”’ he said, eyes glittering with mirth when Blue handed him his coffee. 

Clicking her tongue, Blue accepted Adam’s cash with a smirk that wasn’t her refined Customer Service Smile. ‘You’re not her type anyway,’ she said conspiratorially, ‘Orla likes the caramel macchiato people.’

‘Is that so?’ Adam leaned back against the counter and surveyed the cafe. ‘I don’t see any caramel macchiato people in the vicinity.’

Blue flicked him an amused look. ‘No shit. All those snobs go to Starbucks.’

Adam’s laugh was quiet and genuine. Blue wanted to make him laugh again. 

~

Blue went back to Orla’s place after work and stayed so long that she missed the last train. She managed to catch a few hours of sleep on Orla’s couch and wake up in time to make the first train home at four o’clock in the morning. If she played her cards right, she’d be able to make her ten o’clock shift easily.

The platform was eerie in the small hours of the morning, the flickering lights casting ghostly shadows under the tracks. The stars weren’t visible past the clouds and snow lined the concrete slab that made up the platform. Blue shuddered and put one earbud in, playing Gin Wigmore on low. 

Her thoughts jumped from topic to topic, clutching at anything that would distract her from her macabre surroundings. The hole in her coat pocket needed mending. How much snow had fallen in the night? She should call her mother. Could she get away with ripping another CD from the cafe to her MP3 player?

A footstep skittered behind her and Blue stiffened. She hadn’t thought anyone was on the platform with her. Strong hands grabbed her just as the tracks hummed, signalling the approach of the train.

‘Hey! Fuck off!’ Blue yelled, grabbing the thick wrist of the bastard trying to take her wallet from her coat pocket. Hard as she could, Blue stamped down on his foot, the solid heel of her boot extracting a strangled grunt from him. She drove her elbow into his gut the way her mom’s boyfriend had taught her, spinning when his grip on her loosened. Her MP3 player cluttered to the ground, her earphone tugging out as it did. She gripped his arms and used her foot to try and kick his legs out from under him, pushing his arms at the same time to knock him off balance. 

The train pulled up just as he regained his footing. Blue attempted to sprint for the train when his hand wrapped around her arm again. 

‘I said, fuck off!’ Blue repeated. ‘I don’t have any money.’

Apparently her confession lacked believability. If anything, the mugger seemed more motivated, diving back into her pocket with renewed vigour. Blue reached up with the intention of gouging out his eyes.

‘Jane!’ A voice called, confusing Blue momentarily before a third body crashed into her from the side. She tried to recall what Dean had told her to do when she was outnumbered. 

‘ _ Thrash like a shark caught in a net. _ ’

Blue could certainly do that. Forgetting about the wallet, Blue flailed her arms about, digging her elbows into whatever was within reach and driving her fists up. Her knuckles stung as they collided with chins and noses. 

The first guy got a hold of Blue’s wallet and bolted. Blue groaned, whirling on her second attacker, who was clutching his stomach a few feet away. Mr. Diamond-Wrapped-In-Foil, brown coat and all, with blood dribbling from his nose.

‘You!’ Blue cried, pointing at him. ‘You saw me on the train this morning.’ She lowered her voice menacingly. ‘What did you do, huh? Tell your buddy you found an easy target?’ Blue scowled while the man spluttered.

‘I— I was  _ helping  _ you. And you are being astonishingly ungrateful—’

‘Un _ grateful? _ ’ Blue screeched. ‘I didn’t ask for your help! I was handling it!’

He drew himself up, wiping his nose on the back of his hand and grimacing. ‘Well, had I known that this was the thanks I would receive, I don’t think I would have helped at all.’

‘Well,’ Blue said, mimicking his pompous tone, ‘then I propose we proceed to the train and move on with our lives.’

The man nodded primly, opening his mouth to reply just as the train took off without them. 

Releasing a shuddering breath, Blue closed her eyes before they could fill with tears. ‘Great,’ she whispered around the lump in her throat. Her arms were sore from being grabbed so roughly, her knuckles cold and throbbing dully, and now her wallet—with all her cards and cash inside—was gone. Blue allotted exactly five seconds to feel sorry for herself, then pulled her shoulders back and took a deep breath.

When she opened her eyes again, the man was looking at her with pity. He stooped to pick up her MP3 player, wrapping the headphone cord around it twice before handing it back. Blue accepted it with her lip between her teeth. It was as close as she ever got to saying sorry.

‘Hey,’ the man said, his eye caught on something over Blue’s shoulder. Blue’s eyes followed him as he made his way to a brown rectangle at the base of a mound of snow. 

Blue gasped. ‘Is that—?’

The man held it up with a victorious laugh that broke off in a wince. Dismayed, Blue took the wallet from him—quickly checking that, yes, her emergency fifty dollars was missing, but at least her cards remained—before stooping to gather a handful of snow.

‘You’re not going to hit me with that, are you?’ the man asked wryly.

Blue rolled her eyes, pocketing her wallet and packing the snow into a ball. She offered it to him. ‘Put it on your nose, else it’ll swell up like nobody’s business tomorrow.’

The man recoiled. ‘Sounds like an infection waiting to happen.’

Blue huffed. ‘Look, um—’

‘Gansey.’ 

‘Gansey, do you recall seeing snow this morning?’

‘No.’ He frowned. 

‘And do you see all the snow around us now?’

Gansey’s lips quirked into a smile. ‘Yes.’

‘That means that this snow is fresh,’ Blue explained, like she was talking to a very small, very stupid child. ‘Which also means that this is the purest ice pack you could possibly get your hands on. So, I strongly suggest you take it and stop being a baby.’ Blue cocked her head, considering. ‘Or I  _ will _ throw it at you.’

‘Okay, okay,’ Gansey acquiesced, laughing gingerly as he took the snowball in his gloved hand. Blue watched him brace himself then hold it against the swollen bridge of his nose. His voice sounded like a honk when he said, ‘Happy now?’

Blue grinned in a way that was more a bearing of her teeth. ‘Ecstatic. It brings me so much joy to preserve those pretty, all-American features.’ 

‘Pretty?’ Gansey asked, bewildered. Blue shrugged and wandered over to the bench to await the next train. He followed her, sitting on her right side. ‘You were the one who put these all-American features in jeopardy, Jane.’

‘I  _ know _ ,’ Blue gritted out. ‘And my name’s not “Jane.”’

Gansey sighed. ‘It rarely ever is.’

‘Pardon?’

Shifting to face her, Gansey swapped the snowball to his other hand. ‘I’ve seen you on the train a few times. In my head I’ve started calling you Jane.’

‘Why Jane?’ Blue asked, scrunching her face up.

‘It suits you,’ Gansey said simply.

Blue pursed her lips. “Jane” sounded awfully old-fashioned to her. Like an elderly woman who collected birds and whose biggest regret was probably the cigarette she’d smoked in her youth. ‘I’m not sure I agree,’ Blue muttered, ‘and my name’s Blue, by the way.’ 

Gansey raised an eyebrow. ‘Like the colour?’

‘Like the colour.’

A comfortable silence stretched between them after that. Blue checked her MP3 player still worked then put one earbud in, hitting play but keeping the music on low. 

Gansey held the other earphone up. ‘May I?’ he inquired.

Nodding, Blue watched him wipe the earbud on his sleeve before putting it in his ear. It was a gesture she would normally scoff at, and yet she didn’t. He closed his eyes and really  _ listened  _ to the music in a way that made Blue feel exposed. Her eyes ran over his furrowed brow, his clean shaven jaw, his cheekbones tinged pink from the cold. One of Gansey’s legs was bouncing in time with the beat of the music and his free hand fiddled with a button on his coat. Blue traced his profile once more; she couldn’t seem to stop watching him. 

‘Late night or early morning?’ Blue asked, suddenly anxious to break the silence.

Gansey opened his eyes. ‘Hm?’ Blue was about to repeat herself when he broke into a sardonic smile that Blue didn’t think was directed at her. ‘Does it really look like I’ve slept?’

Blue didn’t need to look at Gansey again, but she happily took the invitation, noting the redness of his eyes and the shadows beneath them.

‘You look like you haven’t slept in a week,’ Blue commented, making Gansey laugh then wince.

‘That actually sounds about right.’ 

‘What kind of work do you do?’ Blue asked. She had her bets on him being some kind of scholar, maybe with a cushy part-time job he got through knowing a friend of a friend, as guys who spoke with perfect eloquence often did.

‘This and that. Are you an artist?’ Gansey asked.

The change in topic didn’t escape Blue’s attention, nor did the fact that he had failed to answer her question, but she let it slide. ‘Why would you think I’m an artist?’

Gansey smiled. ‘I saw you drawing that beautiful woman this morning.’

Despite her best efforts, Blue couldn’t contain her grin. ‘I’ll let my mother know you send your regards,’ she joked, enjoying the flush that coloured Gansey’s cheeks.

‘Well, I can certainly see the genetics at work,’ Gansey said, clearing his throat and adding a relieved, ‘Oh, thank Christ.’ He shook the snow from his hand, wiping the excess off on his coat. His nose was less swollen now, but redder than Rudolph’s.

A moment later, Blue heard the tell-tale hum of an approaching locomotive, but not even the physical train could tear her from her train of thought.

‘So you think I’m  _ beautiful? _ ’ Blue immediately asked once she and Gansey had boarded the train. They were the only ones in the carriage, but he still sat right next to her.

Gansey shot her an incredulous look. ‘You said I was beautiful first.’

‘Uh uh,’ Blue argued, waggling a finger. ‘I called you  _ pretty _ . There’s a difference.’

Gansey treated her to a tired smile that made her feel suddenly childish. ‘How do  _ you _ make a living then, Jane?’ he asked, changing subjects drastically.

‘My name’s not Jane,’ Blue retorted automatically. ‘And I’ll tell you my place in society if you tell me yours.’

Shaking his head, Gansey reached into his coat pocket, withdrawing a piece of paper and a pen. ‘How about I show you? Tomorrow night, come anytime after eleven.’ He scribbled something and handed her a card. The words: THE MEAT MARKET VIP PASS and an address were printed across the top, and the spot for a signature was signed in a neat, loopy calligraphy by someone called Owen.

Blue took the card and read it with a frown. ‘Owen? Did you fake-name me, Gansey?’ she asked, mock-offended.

Gansey shook his head again, still smiling slightly. ‘No, no. Gansey’s my name. My last name. Technically.’

Narrowing her eyes, Blue scrutinised him. ‘Wait a minute. You’re not a—’

‘I do believe this is your stop,’ Gansey said, his words hurried, his demeanour deceptively relaxed. 

‘I do believe that is so,’ Blue mocked, making him laugh again as she stood and grabbed the handle to steady herself. ‘Don’t forget to ice that nose more when you get home.’

‘Quite,’ Gansey said with a grin. ‘It was nice meeting you, Jane.’

‘ _ Blue _ ,’ hissed Blue in farewell, disembarking the train without another look behind her. She got the feeling he was laughing at her. 

Blue walked home in a hurry. After losing not just fifty dollars, but also forty minutes of sleep, she was keen to curl up in bed. Once inside, though, Blue found herself eyeing the battered copy of the Yellow Pages that had come with her apartment. The temptation proved too much while she was brushing her teeth. 

Grumbling around her toothbrush, Blue flipped the book open to M.

MEAL A MILLION

MEAN LEAN FIGHTING MACHINES

The MEAT MARKET

‘Bingo,’ Blue said, words garbled. She ran her gaze over the description and promptly choked on her toothpaste.

It seemed that Blue had managed to befriend a stripper. Not just any stripper, but someone who was quite possibly the most unlikely stripper in the universe. 

Suffice it to say: tomorrow night would see a break in the unbreakable routine of Blue Sargent. Her interest was piqued.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Not a lot of stripping in this chapter but, don't worry, it's coming... *sobs*
> 
> Here's my [tumblr](https://m-ercey.tumblr.com/) and my [twitter](https://twitter.com/m_ercey). Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna go run and hide until next week's update.


	2. Feeling Good

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lap dances and waffle fries.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay firstly I just wanna say that the response to this fic was really really cool and I wanna thank everyone for all the lovely comments. I hope y'all like this!!

Gansey almost hoped she wouldn’t come.

In the past, Gansey’s job had been a deal breaker when it came to girls. The one guy as well, but girls were less likely to be okay with it, or he was just more likely to fall for a girl. Gansey didn’t know which variable acted as the catalyst but thus far all of his experiments had resulted in disappointment.

He also didn’t know what had possessed him to tell Blue where he worked; to  _ invite  _ Blue to where he worked. Had he been heeding Ronan’s advice? Getting it out of the way before she could reject him? Not intentionally, that was for certain. But maybe it would be for the best.

Gansey had been working for hours. His skin was sticky with sweat, and his feet were dead beneath him.  _ Kisses Down Low _ was playing. Again. And it was just as he was taking stock of his dully-throbbing, not-quite-broken nose, he saw her.

Jane. 

The girl who drew on the train. 

The girl who punched him in the face yesterday.

The most incredibly beautiful girl he’d ever seen. 

Blue. 

And she was here, in the Meat Market, her curious face painted in shades of pink and purple under the strobe lights. She hadn’t seen him yet. He could still hide this side of him. But she had accepted his invitation—come all this way—and didn’t that mean something? He strode over to her before he could change his mind.

‘Jane.’

Blue spun around, eyes wide when she caught sight of his bronze briefs. ‘I was beginning to think you were pranking me,’ she said, voice slightly raised to be heard over the music. 

‘Would that have been preferable?’ Gansey asked.

Seeming to recover from her initial surprise, Blue shook her head. ‘Absolutely not. I despise being pranked.’

Gansey beamed. ‘That’s a relief.’ He found himself catching his manager’s disapproving look and Blue’s hand simultaneously. ‘Come on,’ he said, leading her to one of the VIP-only private rooms. 

The music was quieter here. Blue frowned up at him. ‘What are we doing here?’

‘You wanted to know what I did for a living.’ He quirked an eyebrow when she blushed. ‘And I still have half an hour before I can clock off, so…’ Gansey trailed off and Blue’s eyes widened in realisation.

‘You aren’t serious,’ she said incredulously. 

Gansey only grinned and guided her to a seat. 

As Blue sat, she covered her scarlett face with her hands and said, ‘Oh my god,’ but it didn’t sound like a protest. Gansey smirked and hit play on the private speakers, recognising the opening bars of Michael Bublé’s  _ Feeling Good.  _ The routine for this song was a little more sensual, the steady roll of the ocean rather than the jack-hammer of some of the other numbers. Gansey hoped Blue would enjoy it.

He commenced walking towards her, slowly before the sax kicked in, rolling his hips almost idly with every step. Blue’s lips parted as she watched him before she seemed to come back to herself. She clamped her mouth shut, smiling in bewilderment until the first  _ feeling good  _ sent Gansey to the floor. He ground his hips down to the beat and grinned when the move startled a laugh out of Blue. 

Now Gansey could really have some fun.

He wasn’t as serious as he usually was with clients, letting himself catch Blue’s shining eyes more often and occasionally laughing with her. She whooped when he danced closer and hovered above her lap. He rolled his hips and watched Blue’s reaction with interest, feeling a flash of heat when she squirmed and blushed.

It was remarkable how well she was taking this, seeing as Blue had probably not been expecting a lap dance tonight. He stared at her in wonderment when she clapped as the song came to its conclusion. 

‘That was wonderful,’ she said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve. 

Gansey reached for her hands and she allowed him to pull her up. ‘You are quite adorable when you blush, you know.’ 

Blue pulled a face and covered her cheeks with her hands. Gansey’s breath got caught in his throat at the sight of her. Her pretty brown eyes still glinting, her perfect teeth, her utterly tantalising lips—

‘Right, well.’ Gansey cleared his throat. ‘I have to go clock off. Promise me you’ll wait? I’ll take you somewhere nicer than—’ Gansey gestured expansively at the Meat Market.

‘I’ll hold you to that,’ Blue said, running her eyes over the place consideringly. There was nothing judgemental about her gaze, nothing judgemental about her at all. This Blue was a far cry from the Blue who had scowled at him on the train, writing him off in the seconds after he spoke. 

Her eyes snapped to him suddenly. ‘Wait, I thought you still had half an hour before your shift ended?’

Now Gansey really grinned. ‘Let’s just say that clocking off involves a little more flair than a card-swipe.’ He released one of her hands but kept the other in his as he led her to one of the tables reserved for VIPs. The music was louder here so he settled for throwing her a wink as he pinched her fingers and left for backstage. 

Each of them was announced for the clock-off routine, getting a short solo before the next name was called. Gansey waited in the wings, exchanging friendly looks with some of his co-workers.

‘Danny Spanks!’

Gansey watched as “Danny”—whose real name was Tim—did a complicated flip onto the stage. His display was accompanied by a shrill chorus of approval; Danny was a bit of a house favourite. 

‘Jack Hammer!’ 

Jack—Fletcher—took to the stage, and Gansey readied himself. He was up next.

‘Owen Bendlower!’

Gansey slid across the slick stage on his knees and immediately rolled into a floor-grind, giving the crowd a view of his shiny bronze briefs. They roared in response. Gansey caught Blue’s eye and grinned at the mirth he found in her stare. If nothing else, Gansey had given her a fun night, even if she decided against him eventually.

~

‘Well,’ Blue said, walking with Gansey through the streets of the city. ‘That was certainly an introduction.’

Gansey laughed heartily. ‘You wanted to know what I did for a living.’

Blue murmured agreement. She swung her arms out as she walked and Gansey watched her hand as though it was a pendulum, hypnotising him. He wanted to take that hand in his again.

‘Well, seeing as I showed you mine,’ he said instead, ‘will you show me yours?’

Blue rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. ‘Only in this context will my answer be yes to that question.’

That smile would be a secret kept only by him and the streetlamps making the pavement shine until he and Blue might as well have been walking on moonlight. Gansey’s sigh of wonderment became a cloud in the chilly night air. 

Blue took his hand. The night grew just a fragment warmer. 

‘Come on,’ he said, guiding her down a side-street. ‘I know a place down here that has the best waffle fries.’

‘If I get mugged because of you again, I’ll be pissed.’

Gansey frowned. ‘Because of me? Again? How on earth was last time my fault?’

Some of the skip in Blue’s step faltered at his tone. ‘I was joking, but you see how it was kind of your fault, right?’

_ How baffling,  _ Gansey thought, shaking his head so show that, no, he definitely could not conceive how the incident had been his fault.

‘Gansey, I had it handled. Then you came and distracted me—’

‘ _ Helped  _ you.’

‘ _ Tried  _ to help me,’ Blue allowed, making Gansey huff. ‘You know what, whatever. It’s not like I want an apology anyway.’

‘How fortuitous, considering I have  _ nothing  _ to apologise for.’

Blue ripped her hand out of Gansey’s, disdainfully grumbling ‘Fortuitous,’ under her breath. Gansey watched her out of the corner of his eye, recognising the anger in her stance, and yet noticing the way her footsteps kept time and trajectory with his. 

She wanted to stay with him, but she wasn’t happy about it.

‘Would you prefer it if I walked you to the train station?’

‘What?’

‘If you’re only staying with me because it’s not safe otherwise—’

‘Stop talking, dummy,’ Blue said wearily, as though her anger had dissipated just as suddenly as it had appeared. 

Gansey’s head was already spinning.  _ I’m in for it with this one,  _ he thought, not idiotic enough to speak the words aloud; he got the feeling Blue wouldn’t appreciate the sentiment. 

Gansey held the door for her when they got to the diner, but Blue snubbed the gesture, indicating for Gansey to go first. 

_ Definitely in for it.  _

They took a seat behind the booth in the far corner, though the place was mostly empty at one o’clock in the morning, everyone else having migrated to the assortment of bars a few streets over. Now that they were in semi-decent lighting, Gansey could appreciate the outfit Blue was wearing. She wasn’t showing any skin—it was much too cold for that—but she may as well have been naked with the way Gansey’s pulse spiked. 

Blue had on a black wool-knit sweater and a soft pink skirt, but had contrasted the softness with heavy-duty boots and spiky jewellery. Her tights were plain and black, but they outlined lithe little legs that, astonishingly, weren’t running from Gansey… yet.

‘What is it?’ Blue asked, noticing his attention.

Gansey cleared his throat. ‘I like that skirt.’

Blue peered down, as though she’d forgotten what she’d put on that morning, and touched the pink pleats self-consciously. ‘Thanks,’ she muttered, then ran her eyes over Gansey’s ensemble. ‘Not gonna lie, I kind of preferred the thong.’

Gansey snorted unbecomingly. ‘It’s not a  _ thong.’ _

‘Right.’

‘Just order, Jane.’

‘Whatever.’ Blue grinned and hid behind the menu. Gansey’s lips quirked in response. She wasn’t fighting him over calling her “Jane” anymore.

~

‘So what got you into stripping?’ Blue asked, poking a few fries into her mouth.

Gansey nervously ran a hand through his hair, though Blue’s eyes were wide with curiosity and not an ounce of judgement or prejudice. ‘I made some, uh… let’s say unsavoury choices in my adolescence. My mother’s a politician and my behaviour reflected poorly on her campaign. My family renounced me directly after graduation.’

‘Well, shit,’ Blue muttered, swallowing her fries. ‘What’d you do?’

‘I bribed the principal to keep my delinquent of a best friend in school,’ Gansey explained with a grimace, though he said “delinquent” fondly. ‘He was a strike away from expulsion so I mortgaged my house and used the money to buy Ronan a second chance. Not my finest hour.’

‘Your parents threw you out for that?’ Blue asked, her face crinkled adorably. ‘But you were helping someone who needed it.’

Gansey couldn’t help smiling at her. ‘That wasn’t how they saw it.’

‘Hmph.’ Blue sat back, taking a pull of her milkshake before asking, ‘Where’s your friend now? Med school?’

Now Gansey laughed. ‘Absolutely not. He graduated high school then moved to the outskirts of nowhere to become a farmer.’

Blue laughed and clapped a hand over her mouth. ‘I’m sorry. That’s not funny at all.’

Gansey shrugged good-naturedly. ‘It’s a little funny. Besides, in a way, the whole situation was good for me. It forced me out of my comfort zone. I’d never have paid my own school fees if my parents were around, and I certainly never would have been this independent otherwise, even if it comes at the cost of a gaudy wardrobe and an evil landlord.’

‘I hear that,’ Blue murmured, smiling wryly. ‘So how do you like being a stripper? Or should I say exotic dancer?’

Gansey appreciated the lack of mockery in her question. ‘I’m okay with “stripper.” It’s not a shameful occupation, and it takes more than you think.’

‘Yeah?’ Blue looked thoughtful. ‘What does it take?’

‘A supreme lack of shame,’ Gansey admitted. ‘And, you know, hip stuff.’

‘Hip stuff. That sounds… technical.’

‘I thought the technical terminology would make you blush.’

‘I’ve been told I’m “quite adorable” when I blush,’ Blue said boldly. 

Gansey swallowed.  _ Christ. _

‘So. School—’

‘Not so fast,’ Gansey cut her off playfully. ‘I still know next to nothing about you, Jane. It’s not wise for a man to put all his cards on the table without asking a little something in return.’

Blue narrowed her eyes back at him. ‘Alright. What do you want to know?’

‘What’s your favourite colour?’

‘Green.’

‘Not Blue?’

‘A little on the nose, isn’t it?’

Gansey laughed heartily. ‘Touché. What do you do for a living?’

To Gansey’s surprise, Blue shifted along the booth, settling closer to him. She fluttered her eyelashes and made her voice low and sultry when she said, ‘How about I show you? Tomorrow afternoon, come anytime after four.’

It was a moment before Gansey could get his thoughts in order. Blue sat back, looking disappointed. ‘Was it that bad?’

Gansey cleared his throat. ‘Was what bad?’

‘My impression of you. You know—’ Blue made her voice deeper again. ‘Was what bad?’

‘Oh, stop.’ Gansey snorted, nudging her leg under the table. ‘I sound nothing like that.’

Blue shrugged, unaffected. ‘Well,  _ I  _ think I nailed ya.’ She broke off to yawn and Gansey smothered a grin behind his hand.

‘If you’re working tomorrow we should probably head off,’ he said, and knew Blue must have been more tired than she let on when she followed him immediately. Though her evident exhaustion couldn’t keep her from insisting they split the bill equally. 

Gansey had conceded in the face of Blue’s stern finger pointing up at him, and chuckled lightly as he offered her his arm. She took it with vague amusement and they walked to the train-station in companionable silence; arms linked, footsteps synchronised. Gansey’s heart felt as light as his savings account.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Take my [tumblr](https://m-ercey.tumblr.com/) and my [twitter](https://twitter.com/m_ercey) and come yell at me about the sins I've committed if you want. Kudos and comments are also wildly appreciated <3


	3. The Classification of Agatha Christie

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Does this really need one at this point?? We all know what's gonna happen.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey if I'm already in hell I might as well have some fun while I'm down here

Sundays were slow at the café, a fortunate occurrence given Blue’s late night escapade to a strip club, of all places. Orla was practically buzzing from her place on the couch, interrogating Blue with startling intensity. 

_“What did you see?”_

_“What was it like?”_

_“Did you touch anything?”_

_“Can you take me next time?’_

Orla was mostly disappointed by Blue’s tame answers, and it angered Blue enough that she blurted, ‘Actually, one of the dancers took me for waffle fries afterwards.’

The line of questioning took a much more personal route after that. 

_“You let someone pay for your food?”_

_“Do you like him?”_

_“Did he kiss you?”_

_“Did you_ ** _want_** _him to kiss you?”_

Blue’s tense silence as she slammed the till shut was all the answer Orla needed. It wasn’t like Blue hadn’t been asking herself the same things. In fact, these were the questions that had kept her awake well into that morning. Had she expected Gansey to kiss her last night? There had been plenty of opportunities for him to: at the diner, at the train-station, on the train. But he hadn’t. And she hadn’t known just how much she had wanted him to kiss her until the sinking feeling of disappointment had followed her home.

‘Maybe you’re just not the kind of girl guys like him want to french?’ Orla suggested, unhelpfully. 

Blue’s irritation grew. Orla’s inability to see her cousin’s reactions didn’t in any way impede on her ability to read the room. Ironically, Orla’s psychic ability worked best when she couldn’t see the person she was reading—it was why she conducted most of them over the phone—and so, to Orla, Blue’s feelings were like a billboard on a highway. 

‘I don’t care if he wants to kiss me or not,’ Blue lied. ‘I have plenty more worthwhile things to think about than Gansey or Owen or whatever the fuck his name is.’

‘Oh, boy.’ Orla cackled. ‘“Fuck” means you’re, like, gone for him.’

‘It does not,’ Blue muttered furiously, dragging the book trolley over to the shelves to restock them. Orla ignored her, still laughing delightedly.

The bell above the door dinged, heralding the arrival of… 

‘Speak of the devil,’ Orla said.

Blue glanced over her shoulder, getting a good look at Gansey in the doorway, sheepish in his dark exercise clothes. 

Free in the knowledge that Gansey would be the only one to see it, she grinned.

‘Not the great Owen Bendlower gracing us with his presence!’ 

Gansey smirked at her. ‘Gansey is fine, Jane, for the sake of my anonymity.’

The ease with which Gansey had said “anonymity” made Blue want to throw a book at him, but Orla’s scandalised gasp distracted her. 

‘Blue! Did you give this man a fake-name?’

‘No.’ Blue rolled her eyes. ‘And what if I had? I cannot believe you would expose me like that.’

‘The truth will out, dear cousin.’

‘That’s it, I’m never asking you to help me bury a body.’

‘Oh, like _I_ would be your main contender for body-burial assistance.’

‘Two questions,’ Gansey interjected. ‘Whose body are you planning to bury, and are you going to introduce us?’

Blue’s lips quirked as she turned back to the books. ‘Introduce you to the body or my cripplingly-honest cousin Orla?’

‘Hi,’ Orla said smarmily. ‘“Cripplingly-honest” must be something Blue-Blue picked up from you, Mr. Loquacious.’

Blue watched out the corner of her eye as Gansey took in Orla’s glazed-over eyes and her outstretched hand. He computed this information in under a second and then was crossing the room to shake her hand. Blue retrieved more books from the trolley. 

‘A pleasure to meet you,’ Gansey said.

Orla clicked her tongue. ‘Blue never mentioned me, did she?’

‘Well.’ Gansey laughed good-naturedly. ‘In truth, things have been a little centred around myself lately. I do plan to change that, however.’

When Blue looked back at them, Gansey’s eyes were boring into hers. 

Orla leaned forwards, coaxing Gansey’s attention back to her, and Blue felt her jaw stiffen. She pointedly got back to work stocking shelves, listening to Orla’s shameless flirting that Blue _knew_ was intended to get a rise out of her. 

Blue never thought she’d see the day that Calla would be her saving grace, but the woman’s loud entrance was like music to Blue’s ears. 

‘Ugh,’ Calla complained. Blue peeked through the books to see her towering form shaking snow from her jacket. ‘Remind me why you have to work on the hardest street to find?’

Blue pulled a face. ‘There’s, like, three main streets in the area.’

‘Two too many,’ Calla grumbled, then seemed to clock Gansey where he still sat beside Orla. ‘If you’re dating Orla, God rest your soul.’

‘Um.’ Gansey sounded lost. 

‘Calla,’ Orla scoffed. ‘No. This is _Blue’s_ new beau.’

‘Richard Gansey, uh— ma’am,’ Gansey stammered, his Virginian charm sliding into place and altering him entirely. 

Blue hadn’t even known his first name was Richard, and she felt strangely ashamed about never having asked. 

Richard. 

It didn’t suit him at all. 

Blue held her breath as Calla reached out and shook Gansey’s hand. Calla had a very particular talent called psychometry, wherein she could read an object’s history by a single touch alone. Blue paused in her book-stacking and stepped around the bookshelf just in time to see Calla’s finger innocuously touch Gansey’s wristwatch. Calla’s eyebrows shot up and Blue held her breath.

A long moment passed, and then Calla grinned wolfishly in Blue’s direction. ‘Oh, you are in so much trouble.’

Orla laughed delightedly and Blue’s face dropped in a scowl. ‘Don’t the two of you have somewhere to be?’ 

‘Fine, fine,’ Orla conceded, standing and reaching an arm out. ‘Help me to the door, Richard?’ she asked sweetly.

‘Of course.’

Gansey let Orla take his arm and she gasped, giving it an appreciative squeeze. ‘Oh, my.’

‘Orla, stop molesting him,’ Blue gritted out, disappearing back behind the bookshelf to hide the way her cheeks were burning. It wasn’t like Blue could judge Orla when she had had much the same reaction when Gansey had walked her to the train station. His biceps were admittedly impressive.

The door swung shut behind Orla and Calla, leaving her and Gansey alone in the quiet. The carpet softened Gansey’s footsteps as he walked back, pausing to take in the books all around them. It was intimate. More intimate than being alone with him at the train station or even the private room in the strip club had been, and Gansey had been practically naked for the latter. 

‘If you had told me I’d be meeting relatives of yours, I wouldn’t have dressed so slovenly,’ was how Gansey chose to break the silence. 

Blue snorted and climbed the step-ladder to reach the forsaken classic’s shelf. She didn’t say how no one from Fox Way would ever judge someone based on their attire. She didn’t say that they had a much more terrifying way of finding out your shortcomings. Being around Gansey meant being Blue. Just Blue. Not Blue-The-Daughter-Of-Psychics. Not Blue-Who-Works-In-The-Book-Café. Just Blue. She was already giving up one of those handles in the name of getting closer to Gansey, and one was plenty for today.

Gansey’s sudden presence at Blue’s side nearly made her fall from her precarious perch. His thumb was pressed to his lip in an odd, scholarly gesture. It caused a flutter in Blue’s gut. ‘What?’ she asked.

Gansey flicked her a glance. ‘Does Agatha Christie not belong in the crime section?’

‘Oh.’ Blue raised her eyebrows. ‘So now you’re going to tell me how to do my job?’

‘Not at all,’ Gansey assured her. ‘I just hate to see such a brilliant crime novelist mouldering with the classics.’

Blue pursed her lips and sighed, her anger fizzling as swiftly as it had been lit. ‘No one reads classics anymore, do they?’ 

‘“A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read,”’ Gansey intoned.

Blue smirked, recognising the quote as one of her favourites. ‘Mark Twain.’

Gansey’s quick look of surprise stung Blue’s pride a bit.

‘What?’ she asked again. ‘I work in a book café. You think I don’t read?’

‘You’re being awfully defensive, Jane.’

‘Yeah? Well…’ Blue deigned not to finish her sentence, grabbing the pile of Christie books someone had donated in bulk that morning and taking them to the crime shelf. In truth, Blue was feeling a little exposed, perhaps defensive, but she couldn’t exactly help it. She cast around for a segue and spotted the historical non-fiction section. She grinned.

‘The historical books are in the front corner, if you want to check them out.’

Gansey made no move to the front of the bookshop, instead coming to stand close to Blue and leaning against the bookshelf, the frayed sleeve of his hoodie brushing against the spine of a Lee Child novel. His eyes scrutinised the side of her face. ‘And what makes you think I have an interest in history?’

Now it was Blue’s turn to be smug. ‘Because you’re a history major. I cracked it last night.’ She held her hands up demonstratively. ‘Owen Bendlower, Owen Glendower. It’s a history joke.’

Gansey’s face was curiously blank and Blue fought her disappointment. She thought he’d at least laugh with her. 

Instead he murmured, ‘You know about Glendower?’

Blue’s pride stung again. ‘Now I can’t know basic trivia about the middle ages?’

‘No, no,’ Gansey said hurriedly. ‘It’s just… Christ, Jane. Just when I think you can’t get more perfect, you surprise me.’

‘I—’ Words evaded Blue. ‘Shut up.’ 

Her cheeks grew hot again. No one had ever called her “perfect” before, and probably for good reason. 

‘I’m serious.’

‘Do you always blurt out whatever’s on your mind?’ Blue inquired. 

Gansey smirked mockingly; something dark and self-directed and beyond Blue’s comprehension. 

‘Most of the time,’ he said. ‘Are you saying that you don’t?’

Rolling her eyes, Blue got down from the ladder. ‘I don’t when I’m at work, but off the clock… I’ve been working in customer service since I was sixteen, okay? I’ve got a lot of pent-up rage.’

‘You don’t say,’ Gansey said wryly. His mouth was twisted ruefully when Blue’s eyes snapped to his. ‘I’m sorry, that was rude of me.’

‘Hm.’ 

Blue began wheeling the trolley back to the store room, Gansey trailing behind her silently.

It wasn’t as though Blue thought he was _wrong,_ exactly. She had no delusions about the kind of person she was, and knew just how hot-headed she could get. What was throwing her off-balance was the fact that Gansey thought he knew her well enough to understand her. More troubling was the fact that Blue thought that maybe he _did._ She had been more forthcoming around Gansey over the last four days than she had ever been with another person. 

Was it because he had been just as open with her? Was it something else? Blue didn’t know.

She pushed the trolley back to its place and turned to find Gansey already regarding her with interest. 

‘What are you thinking about?’ he asked.

Blue quirked an eyebrow. ‘What are _you_ thinking about?’

‘I’m thinking about how devastatingly bad I want to kiss you,’ Gansey said. Bold, startling, impossible. ‘Your turn.’

Blue felt her mouth fall open in surprise and snapped it shut. She considered him for a moment before she whispered, ‘I’m wondering why you haven’t.’ 

It wasn’t exactly a lie.

Gansey shuddered a sigh. ‘I wasn’t sure you wanted me to,’ he admitted, taking a slow step forward. ‘Even now, I’m not certain.’

‘I want you to,’ Blue said instantly, not caring if it made her look desperate, not after Gansey’s admission. The words _devastatingly bad_ seemed to echo around the tiny store room with every quickening beat of Blue’s heart.

Gansey stepped further into the room. ‘Do you really?’ he asked.

‘I really do,’ Blue whispered back, taking her own step towards him.

They were chest to chest and Blue had to crane her neck to look up at him. And then, like a branch bent by a persistent gale, Gansey stooped and kissed her; his fingers gentle on her cheek, his lips firm against hers. Blue’s fists curled in the fabric of Gansey’s hoodie, pulling him down. His arm encircled her, planting his other hand against her lower back. Warmth spread from the palm of his hand right through her spine as his mouth seared her own. 

He tasted of mint—subtly, like the leaf rather than the gum—and it was somehow intoxicating.

Gansey kissed much like how he spoke: properly, exploratively, and with absolute abandon. The hand on Blue’s cheek slipped behind her head, and she rose on her tiptoes to loop one arm around Gansey’s shoulders. Their hearts thudded against each other, their pulses racing side-by-side where Gansey’s wrist brushed the sensitive skin of her neck.

When they came up for air, Gansey didn’t go far, pressing their foreheads together and inhaling deeply. He swayed, slightly off-balance, and Blue frowned.

‘What’s wrong?’ she breathed against his lips.

‘Nothing,’ Gansey murmured back. ‘Just, um— dizzy.’

‘Do you want to sit down?’ 

‘I think that would be a good idea, yes,’ Gansey said, and Blue steered him back to the armchair where she sometimes took an afternoon nap. He sunk into it gratefully but kept his hand on Blue’s hip to keep her close. ‘Stay.’

Much to Blue’s own confusion, she did; her worry keeping her rooted to the spot. ‘Are you allergic to anything?’ she asked, remembering the peanut granola bar she’d eaten earlier.

Gansey smirked slightly. ‘Have you ingested any bees lately?’

‘I… can’t say I have.’

‘Then I think the most likely scenario is that you simply took my breath away.’

Blue scoffed. Gansey’s eyes danced. 

‘Someone’s feeling better,’ she commented, taking a seat on the arm of the chair and wedging her shoes under his thigh.

‘Much,’ Gansey agreed, his hand moving from her hip to her knee. Blue swallowed. She could still feel his lips against hers, and now something about the weight of his fingers lightly resting on her leg was making her want to— Well, it was making her want Gansey. 

‘Do you think you’ll pass out if I kiss you again?’ Blue asked.

Gansey raised his eyebrows at her and swallowed audibly. ‘Are we speaking hypothetically?’

With a roll of her eyes, Blue manoeuvred herself to bracket Gansey’s hips. His hands dropped to rest on her thighs and she shivered. 

‘Not to be terribly forward, but I’d feel dirty doing anything more than kissing in this room,’ Gansey murmured, making Blue laugh quietly and shake her head.

‘What about just kissing?’

Gansey captured her in a kiss, a wordless confirmation, this time running his tongue over the seam of her lips. Blue gasped into the sensation and buried her hands in his hair. This kiss had intention behind it and, though they didn’t defile her napping-chair, the same could not be said for Blue’s small bed back at her apartment. 

So, maybe she _was_ the kind of girl who guys like Gansey wanted to french.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [tumblr.](https://m-ercey.tumblr.com/) [twitter.](https://twitter.com/m_ercey) I'm sorry.


	4. Thanks Be to Henry Cheng

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hey Ronan's in this one :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's chapter four and I'm only just writing Ronan?? Preposterous, I know. Thank you for being patient with me and for all your lovely comments. They make my whole day <3

‘It’s almost like you can unhinge your jaw,’ Gansey told Ronan, watching in mingled horror and wonderment as Ronan crammed an entire slice of pizza into his mouth. Ronan’s piercing glare told him what his mouth was too full to say, and Gansey shook his head.

They were hanging out in Adam’s dimly lit college dorm, awaiting Adam’s return from night school. It was a rare occasion indeed that Gansey had a Friday off, that Ronan was away from the Barns, and that Adam had the dorm to himself, and they were all determined to take full advantage of the alignment of their schedules.

Gansey only had to watch Ronan taking his title of “snake” all too seriously for another few minutes. Adam announced his arrival with a soft bump and a muffled curse.

‘Alright, Parrish?’ Gansey asked, taking another bite.

‘Yeah, yeah.’ Adam’s head popped around the doorframe and he smiled at the sight of Ronan and Gansey sitting cross-legged on the narrow patch of floor between Adam and his roommate’s beds. ‘Doesn’t this look cozy.’

Adam took his spot next to Ronan, their knees touching in greeting, then extended his fist for Gansey to bump with his own. 

It was like they were back in high school, hanging out in Monmouth, planning their next expedition to find a clue on Glendower and eating Nino’s pizza instead of Domino’s. But the years spanned between these versions of Ronan, Adam and Gansey and the boys who had met at Aglionby Academy. They had changed,

Ronan had more tattoos, Adam was deaf in one ear, Gansey was penniless, and Noah was gone.

Gansey tried not to dwell on that last part. 

Instead, Gansey asked Adam about school, and Ronan about the Barns, and they asked about work and school in return. Ronan and Adam had been supportive if not incredulous of Gansey’s choice to learn how to dance and work for the Meat Market after his parents cut him off. But Adam knew what it was to struggle for money and Ronan, in his words, “couldn’t give less of a rat’s furry fucking ass” what Gansey did, so they never said anything unsavoury on the matter. Well, aside from—

‘You been in touch with your pimp lately?’ 

Gansey made an irritated noise in the back of his throat. ‘For the last time, Ronan, Henry Cheng is not my pimp.’

Adam pulled a face that he tried to hide behind his soda can.

‘You as well, Adam?’

‘Hey, I didn’t say anything.’

‘Your thoughts are vociferous on their own.’ Gansey dodged the wadded-up napkin Ronan threw at him with a grin. ‘To answer your question, no. I haven’t been in touch with Henry.’

Henry Cheng was another Aglionby Academy graduate and one of the most startlingly eclectic people Gansey had the pleasure of knowing. It had also been his idea for Gansey to take up a night job to fund his studies and, though dancing had been a facetious suggestion, it was Henry who had helped Gansey get his job at the Meat Market. Hence Ronan’s joke of poor taste.

‘Aw, shit,’ Ronan said, his voice mock-sympathetic. ‘Cheng leaving you high and dry?’

‘On the contrary,’ Gansey replied tartly, ‘I’ve been otherwise occupied by someone else this past week or so.’

The admission grabbed both of his friends’ interests. Adam’s sky-blue eyes widened at the same time Ronan’s icy ones narrowed. Gansey shifted under their scrutiny.

‘You didn’t tell us you were dating again,’ Adam said. It wasn’t phrased like a question.

Gansey shrugged. ‘I didn’t really make the executive decision to start,’ he explained, feeling a smile creep over his face. ‘This one kind of snuck up on me.’

Ronan blinked twice and shared a sideways look with Adam. ‘He’s been strapped.’

‘Entirely,’ Adam agreed.

‘I have not!’

‘Gansey, you should see your face right now.’ Adam himself was grinning fiendishly as he gestured at Gansey’s face. ‘In your words, you look besotted.’

‘I’m not—’ but the rest of Gansey’s denial got caught in his throat. ‘Maybe a little besotted,’ he conceded.

‘Some week, huh?’ Adam asked, waggling his eyebrows.

‘Don’t be crass.’ Gansey laughed. ‘It’s not like that. I haven’t even seen her since we, uh…’

‘Banged it out?’

‘Thanks, Ronan.’

‘Anytime.’

Adam shot Ronan a grudgingly amused look before returning his attention to Gansey. ‘So, what gives? Call her.’

‘Can’t,’ Gansey said wryly. ‘She doesn’t have a cell phone.’

‘I like her already,’ Ronan decided, always eager to express his distaste for modern communication methods.

Adam frowned. ‘Can you visit her? How did people date in the eighties?’

‘Boombox?’ Ronan suggested. 

‘That was the nineties.’

‘Bullshit.’

‘Gansey?’

Sighing wearily, Gansey took his phone out to google the release date for the movie “Say Anything.” ‘No matter who’s right, I’m still not going to stand outside her apartment with a— nineteen-eighty-nine. Point to Ronan.’

‘Ha,’ Ronan said smugly.

Adam rolled his eyes. ‘Whatever. So what are you gonna do?’

‘I’ll figure something out,’ Gansey said. 

In truth, Gansey had no idea what to do about the Blue situation. All he  _ did  _ know was that the evening spent with her was burned into his memory and that he wanted to see her again. He wanted to feel the soft skin of her waist under his hands, her perfect lips against his, her tiny body wrapped around his. And it wasn’t just sexual either. Gansey wanted to talk to Blue about everything. About Mark Twain quotes and books and Glendower and Blue’s family and Blue’s life. 

His depth of feeling for Blue was at once startling and electrifying in its intensity, and Gansey hadn’t a clue what to do with himself about it.

‘Who knows,’ Gansey went on, ‘maybe a one-night stand is all I’m good for.’ He had meant it as a joke, but the words came out regrettably bleak. 

‘Man, fuck that,’ Ronan said, and with Ronan he could have meant “fuck only being good for a one-night stand” or “fuck  _ thinking  _ you’re only good for a one-night stand.” Either way the sentiment was there, and Gansey appreciated it.

‘Yeah, just a thought.’ 

Noting the late hour, Gansey rose, more than happy to leave his friends to each other’s company. He could see the way they were subtly inching closer, as though pulled by the others’ centre of gravity into their orbit, and Gansey knew to take his leave.

‘Sounds like a thought that’ll mess with you if you let it,’ Adam added gently, passing up the empty pizza box for Gansey to trash on his way out. 

‘Guess I’ll have to not let it,’ Gansey said, smiling as he bumped knuckles with Ronan then Adam. ‘Excelsior.’

‘Later, Dick,’ Ronan called cheerfully from the floor and Gansey shook his head as he shut the door behind him.

On his way to the train station, Gansey wondered if perhaps the reason he felt so supremely unlucky in love was because his best friends had found the jackpot in each other. Or perhaps it  _ was  _ just Gansey. Was Blue thinking about him to the same degree that Gansey was thinking of her? Was he haunting her thoughts the way she was undoubtedly haunting his? He doubted it, but he was self-aware enough to know that he had a bad habit of doubting himself.

~

Gansey got back to his apartment just as his watch chimed midnight with three tinny beeps. He skipped up the steps, finding his door key and promptly losing it back among the others on his keychain when he saw that it would be of no use. His door had been padlocked shut.

The conversation with his landlord that morning took on a new meaning in Gansey’s mind. 

_ ‘You’re three days behind on rent.’ _

_ ‘As I keep telling you, sir: I get paid on Wednesdays, so paying rent on a Monday can be a little—’ _

_ ‘I don’t need to hear this again, boy. Set the cash aside or budget your shit better. I don’t care.’ _

_ ‘With all due respect, I can quite easily explain—’ _

_ ‘Pwoah. What respect? You listen to me and you listen well: if your rent isn’t paid by this afternoon, you’re out.’ _

_ ‘But, sir—’ _

Peter had hung up the call. It turned out he had not been bluffing.

‘Shit,’ Gansey said to himself and, when the act of cursing didn’t make him feel better, he took a mint leaf out of his coat pocket, turned on his heel and stormed off into the night.

~

It wasn’t until Gansey knocked on Blue’s door that he considered the rashness of his actions. It was a quarter past one in the morning by that time, and he hadn’t spoken to Blue in at least five days, possibly more. His coming to her house for help was awfully presumptuous of him. 

Maybe his knock hadn’t woken her. Maybe he could back away slowly enough that he didn’t make any more noise and she’d never know he was here— 

Blue opened the door just an inch, the security chain stopping it. ‘I have a gun,’ she declared to the night.

Despite himself, Gansey laughed. ‘I hardly think a firearm’s necessary, Jane. I’ve been on the wrong end of one of your punches.’

‘Gansey?’ Blue sounded relieved but dubious in a way that made Gansey wince.

‘Yeah. Sorry about the hour—’ 

The door shut, cutting him off, and Gansey could hear Blue undoing the chain to open it again. When she did, Gansey saw by the ghostly light of the streetlamps that Blue was wearing a yellow nightdress that may have been intended as a shirt for someone much bigger. Her legs were bare but for a mismatched pair of knee-high socks; one blue and one black.

Her face was perplexed when Gansey sheepishly met her gaze, but not in a way that made Gansey feel unwelcome.

‘What are you doing here?’ Blue asked him. 

‘Landlord locked me out.’

‘And you thought you’d come here asking for help?’

‘Yes?’

Blue scrutinised him for a long moment before she stepped back, gesturing him inside. ‘Well, come on in, four eyes.’

Gansey touched his glasses self-consciously. He’d forgotten Blue had never seen him wear them before, but caught her teasing smirk as he passed her. She closed the door behind him and bolted it shut, plunging them into darkness.

‘Four eyes? And here I was thinking you were above such infantile—’

Gansey’s words halted because, in a heartening turn of events, Blue was suddenly kissing him. It was heated and minty, but all Gansey could think about was how nice it was to feel her under his hands. It was reassuring to know that she had missed him enough to want to kiss him again.

She kissed him for just a moment then pulled back. Gansey blinked.

‘I… seem to have forgotten my words.’

‘Good,’ Blue whispered. ‘Maybe I’ll do that more often.’

‘Like, right now?’ Gansey asked, earning himself another quick kiss. 

‘Now we’ve gotten the pleasantries out of the way, are you okay?’ Blue asked, concern lacing her tone. 

Gansey reached behind him for a light switch of some kind. He wanted to  _ see  _ her. He found it and flicked it on, but remained in darkness. 

Blue sighed. ‘Don’t bother.’

‘No electricity?’ 

‘I shut it off at night so the bill’s not so high,’ Blue admitted.

Gansey’s thoughts couldn’t help straying to the dangers that Blue’s attempts to be frugal came with. Of her, alone in this apartment, with nothing but the bluff of a fake gun and a chain on the door to dissuade someone with worse intentions than he from breaking in.

‘But how will you call for help if your phone’s shut off?’ Gansey asked. ‘How will you  _ defend  _ yourself? It’s not safe to—’

The only reason Gansey stopped himself was because he was suddenly keenly aware of Blue, trembling in his arms. 

_ Oh,  _ he realised with a jolt,  _ not a kiss of passion. A kiss of relief. _ He had scared her.

‘Sorry,’ he muttered instead, his hands coming up to rub her arms soothingly. ‘I’ll shut up now.’

‘It’s not like I have other  _ options—’ _

‘I know. I wasn’t thinking.’

A beat passed between them and then Blue said, ‘You can’t see it, but I’m squinting at you.’

The image in Gansey’s mind’s eye made him snort. ‘And I’m suitably chastised.’

‘Come on,’ Blue said, and Gansey could hear the eyeroll in her voice. ‘If you’re so worried about my safety, you can protect me for tonight.’ 

Gansey felt her take his hand and guide him through her dark apartment. It wasn’t his first time there, but he had been a little too preoccupied by Blue’s lips to take much notice of the place’s floor plan. After stumbling on what he suspected was a shoe, Gansey’s shin hit the edge of Blue’s bed frame. She climbed on top and pulled at his hand, urging him to join her, and Gansey felt odd. Like he was somewhere he wasn’t supposed to be.

‘Shall I take the floor?’ he suggested.

Blue laughed at him. ‘We’ve done worse things in this bed than sleeping, in case you’ve forgotten.’

‘That doesn’t give me a free pass.’

‘No, it doesn’t,’ Blue said, the words ringing with approval. ‘But I say it’s okay, so it’s okay.’

Emotion clogged in Gansey’s throat as he whispered, ‘Okay,’ and kicked his shoes off before climbing up onto the bed beside Blue. There was some awkward shuffling that ultimately ended with both of them on their backs, their fingertips and socked toes serving as the only places where they touched. 

Gansey often struggled to sleep, a phenomenon that had plagued him all his life. His sister had used to tell him that it was the consequence of possessing a mind that burned through thoughts quicker than slick tires on a race track. 

But there was something about lying next to Blue in the dark, about listening to her breathing—even if it wasn’t particularly slow or steady—that settled some unsettleable part of him. Blue was the smoke to the buzzing hive of his overactive mind, and Gansey could feel the way his thoughts were quietening.

He heaved a sigh and felt Blue’s chin touch his shoulder as she looked at him. ‘Do you  _ want  _ to sleep on the floor?’ she asked incredulously.

‘No,’ Gansey said instantly. ‘No, I much prefer being right here, thank you.’

‘Okay,’ Blue whispered softly, and she tangled her fingers with Gansey’s. He gripped hers back. ‘Goodnight, then.’

‘Goodnight, Jane,’ Gansey murmured, and the two lay in silence until Blue’s breathing evened out. Gansey lay awake only for a few minutes more before succumbing to his own exhaustion, his hand in Blue’s and heart mercifully light; lighter than it had been in a long time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There we have itttt
> 
> Let me know what you thought in the comments or come tell me on [tumblr.](https://m-ercey.tumblr.com/) or [twitter.](https://twitter.com/m_ercey) :D <3


	5. Meeting The Raven Boys

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is The End.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IT IS DONEEE.
> 
> Thank you, all for bearing with me while I got this cursed concept down. I had a lot of fun playing around with this idea and I love all of your comments assuring me that you've had just as much fun in this universe. I'm happy to write some crack in our global hour of need. Enjoy the final chapter!! It's nice and long <3

Blue awoke when a train thundered past at seven in the morning. She was huddled against something scratchy and warm and grazed her knuckles over it for a puzzled moment before her eyes opened. Blinking against the lowlight of dawn, Blue recalled what had happened the night before. 

Gansey had stayed over, and Blue was currently crowded right up against his back.

He’d fallen asleep in his coat, the same one she’d seen him wearing on the day they’d met, with his glasses still skewed on his face. His breaths came slow and quiet, though Blue could recall some snoring from him in the night. The thought made her strangely giddy. Mr. Perfect wasn’t so perfect after all. 

Careful not to disturb him, Blue shuffled back until they were a respectable distance apart and reached to take his glasses off his face. The feeling of Blue’s fingertip on the bridge of his nose made him stir and he rolled over, right into Blue.

She placed his glasses on top of her headboard. ‘Heya,’ she said quietly.

Gansey squinted up at her. ‘Hi.’ His voice was gravelly with sleep. Blue had a sudden flash of realisation that this was her first time seeing Gansey wake up. The magnitude of something so miniscule caught her off guard. Blue wasn’t used to intimacy, and she was less used to intimacy digressing into normalcy. 

Gansey said, ‘You look beautiful in the morning.’

‘Only in the morning?’ Blue teased.

‘N-no. No. You always look beautiful. It’s just— I just meant… Well, you—’ 

Blue couldn’t help kissing him. He was adorable when he stammered, eyes roving for the words his mouth couldn’t quite seem to catch hold of. Blue kissed him with her mouth closed and pulled back when she felt Gansey’s lips part beneath hers. 

‘Your hair looks stupid,’ she said, running a hand through its messy tousle.

Gansey pretended to be stung. ‘Stupidly charming.’

Blue grinned and agreed, ‘Stupidly charming.’

Slinging one leg over his torso, Blue playfully took her time scooting over Gansey to get out of the bed. He hauled her back the moment her foot touched the floor. 

‘Gansey!’ Blue laughed as she was tossed back to her side of the bed. Gansey rolled to brace himself over her. ‘I haven’t even brushed my teeth,’ Blue protested weakly.

Seeming to sense her pliant resistance, Gansey ducked to glide the tip of his nose, no longer bruised, down the column of her throat. Blue shivered as he planted a kiss on her breastbone. 

‘G’morning,’ he mumbled against the skin there, his free arm encircling her lower back where it arched up off of the mattress.

She buried her hands in his feathery-soft hair again, unable to help herself. ‘Morning.’

‘How did you sleep?’

Blue wrinkled her nose. ‘No small talk. Ask me something else.’

‘Is that an order?’ Gansey asked, kissing a warm path back up Blue’s neck.

‘Yes, it is.’ Blue’s fingers tightened in Gansey’s hair and, in her best villain impression, she whispered, ‘Defy me, if you dare.’

Gansey huffed a laugh against her cheek, igniting the frayed nerve-endings inside of her like a carjacker, and she knew from experience that he could hotwire her any way he liked. 

‘Very well. Tell me something.’ 

Blue sighed at the feeling of his thumb stroking over her hip. ‘Like what?’

Gansey made a thoughtful sound. ‘What did you dream about?’

‘I think your snoring scared my dreams away,’ Blue whispered, and relished in the embarrassed groan Gansey muffled into her neck.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said, leaning back and smiling wryly at her. ‘Sometimes I snore when I sleep on my back.’

‘Oh, it’s okay.’ Blue’s hands drifted from Gansey’s hair to play with the lapels of his coat. ‘I like snoring. It’s better than lying next to those people who sleep so still you think they’re dead.’

Gansey laughed his agreement. ‘So, no dreams, then.’

‘I didn’t say that.’

‘You said my snoring chased them away.’

‘I said it  _ scared _ them away.’

‘Is there a difference?’

‘Do you wanna hear about my dream or what?’

‘Yes.’ Gansey laughed again, the sound rich with fondness. ‘Please, Jane. Put me out of my misery.’

Blue shrugged. ‘Alright. I dreamed it was  _ me _ giving  _ you _ a lap dance.’

In the silence following Blue’s bold statement, she heard Gansey swallow, and feared she had made the mistake of being a little too forward. Gansey’s hand came up to brush her bangs and—simultaneously—her doubts aside.

‘I think I would quite enjoy that.’

‘Mmhm.’ Blue smirked, hoping it would downplay the blush slowly creeping over her cheeks. ‘You certainly did in the dream. Maybe I’ll have to keep that in mind.’

Gansey’s hand touched her cheek, meaning he’d caught their reddening. ‘Can I kiss you, Jane?’

Blue’s stomach leaped, but she shook her head. ‘There’s nothing sexy about a morning-breath kiss. Trust me.’

‘Well, in that case…’ 

Gansey rummaged for something in his coat pocket, withdrawing a leaf of some sort, that he popped into his mouth. He offered a second one to Blue and she narrowed her eyes, bringing his hand closer to smell it.

‘Is that… Do you usually carry mint leaves on your person?’ she asked.

‘Yes,’ Gansey said plainly. ‘I have a plant at home, and it’s cheaper and better than paying for mints thrice a week.’

Thrice. Blue was about to have sex with a man who said “thrice” and habitually chewed on honest-to-god mint leaves. Unbelievable. 

‘You should really stop talking before I begin to hate you,’ she muttered, letting him pop the mint leaf into her mouth. His thumb lingered on her bottom lip and the coolness of the mint waged war with the heat pooling in her belly.

‘Does that mean you don’t hate me now?’ Gansey smiled impishly. ‘Does that mean you  _ like  _ me?’

‘I liked you better last night, on my doorstep like a sad, homeless puppy.’

‘Ah, crushed and broken,’ Gansey said, nodding sagely. ‘Just how women like ‘em.’

Blue had to laugh. ‘Shut up,’ she told him, and pressed her lips to his. 

~

It was still early when Gansey and Blue lay tangled in Blue’s pink and green bed sheets, after making a right mess of them, and each other. Blue had decreed that there was to be no talk of bastard landlords or responsibilities until after she’d gotten a coffee she didn’t have to make, so Gansey decided to treat her to one. He still had a few hours before his afternoon class on the killing fields of history, and she was owed something for her hospitality.

It was while they were sipping on mochaccinos and strolling by a nearby park that Blue brought it up.

‘Okay, so,’ she began, fiddling with her frayed gloves. ‘Landlord. Go.’

Gansey blew out a deep breath. ‘Right. So, my rent may have been a little late.’

‘How late is a little late?’

‘Three days.’

‘Pshaw,’ Blue scoffed, a very Virginian scoff. ‘That’s nothing. How often is it due?’

Gansey looked sheepish. ‘Once a week.’

‘Once a—’ Blue frowned deeply. ‘Is it okay if I ask how much—?’

‘More than I’d like,’ Gansey cut her off. ‘Look, the place was only meant to be temporary. I couldn’t afford my car anymore, so I needed somewhere on the train line, and somewhere that wouldn’t have an issue with my—’ Gansey cleared his throat. ‘—line of work.’

‘Okay,’ Blue said, mulling that over and sipping her coffee. ‘So, you said you got locked out. Did the landlord change the keys on you? Because you know that’s illegal.’

Gansey laughed bitterly. ‘Oh, nothing so extravagant. He put a padlock on the door, which slides, so it wasn’t even like I could kick it in.’

Blue raised an eyebrow. ‘Would you really have kicked it in otherwise?’

‘I think I was angry enough to,’ Gansey admitted. ‘But no. Not really in my nature; or rather, my nurture.’

‘Clever,’ Blue said derisively. ‘In any case, it’s illegal to lock you out of your own house, and eviction notices need to be posted thirty days before they can legally force you out. You could probably sue him.’

‘And why, may I ask, do you know so much about the legalities of landlordship?’ 

The question brought a soft grin to Blue’s face, one Gansey didn’t think she was aware of. ‘One of the regulars at the café is pre-law. I quiz him sometimes.’

Gansey touched her cheek before he could stop himself. ‘You like him.’

Blue flushed. ‘I mean, I don’t  _ like him  _ like him— ugh. I said  _ like  _ like. You’ve turned me into a fifth grader.’

‘Such a tragic regression,’ Gansey said automatically. He was experiencing a strange surge of emotions, similar to anger, yet stemming from some deep, internal doubt. Was this how it felt to be jealous?

‘Anyway, when Adam gets all hopped up on coffee and gets you to quiz him for hours, you pick up some stuff.’ Blue winked poorly, and Gansey laughed at her attempt. ‘I learn lots from my regulars. Just last week Jesse told me that spaghetti-o’s taste incredible with broccoli and ranch sauce.’

Gansey made a face. ‘And do they?’

‘Jesse’s never wrong.’

‘I’ll have to try that,’ Gansey murmured then grinned, thinking of his own Adam. ‘Do you suppose it’s possible that caffeine addictions and law-degrees are characteristic of Adams? I’ve got one who’s just the same.’

‘You’ve  _ got  _ one?’

Gansey smirked at her, touching his thumb to his lip. ‘I would say I  _ know  _ one, but most of the time I’m not all that certain I do. He has an elusive constituent to him.’

Blue seemed to make an effort to ignore his answer in favour of circling back to their original topic of the characteristics of Adams. ‘I think it’s possible that our names grow to define us in some way. I think all kinds of things are possible,’ she said with a cheerful shrug.

The way she said it made Gansey want to believe it; in possibilities, the way he had when he was a teenager and the entire world was at his feet. He thought that maybe Blue had rekindled something in him that he hadn’t even noticed had been extinguished. It was at once heartening and curious.

‘So what are you going to do about the padlock?’ Blue asked.

‘Pay my rent, I suppose,’ Gansey mused. 

‘Or you could move out?’

Gansey snorted. ‘And crash on your couch? I don’t have anywhere to move  _ to.’  _

‘I mean…’ Blue trailed off, her face finishing her sentence:  _ That is one possibility.  _

‘Blue. No. I’m not going to—’

‘Just listen to me for a moment here,’ Blue said stubbornly, stopping in front of him. Gansey met her gaze cautiously. ‘You need someplace to live, correct?’

‘Yes, but—’

‘I also happen to be in need of a roommate.’

‘Well, that—’

‘Gansey.’

Her deep brown eyes were intense on his, and no sign of waver could be found in the tense line of her mouth. A duck escaped a screaming toddler.

‘You’re serious,’ Gansey said, slightly wonderstruck.

‘Deadly,’ Blue replied, and commenced their walk again. Gansey kept pace easily. ‘Besides, it’s closer to the city, so you wouldn’t have to commute so far. Plus, both of us would be paying half the rent we do now. We could afford to keep the phone line connected all night.’

‘You're not the slightest bit—’ It was Gansey’s turn to stop Blue in her tracks. He needed to watch her eyes for this. ‘You hardly know me, Jane. What if I’m…’ Gansey gesticulated, unsure of how to finish that sentence.

Blue seemed to get the point, if not believe him. A mischievous twinkle glinted in her eyes. ‘Do you plan on taking advantage of me?’

Gansey sputtered. ‘Wh— Jane,  _ what?’ _

‘I said, Richard Gansey: Do you plan on taking advantage of our close quarters once you move in with me?’

The sound of Blue’s voice invoking his first and last name turned Gansey’s insides to taffy, stretching him until he felt thin and insubstantial; easily swayed and pliable in her hands.

Gansey feared he would do anything she asked.

‘Absolutely not,’ he said in answer to her question.

‘Good.’ Blue was grinning now. ‘And I don’t plan on taking advantage of you either, so what’s the problem, hm?’

They stared each other down for a long moment. Gansey’s eyes narrow, Blue’s wide and challenging. 

Gansey was the first to break, laughing quietly in that way that was more disbelief than humour. ‘You don’t do anything by halves, do you, Jane?’

Blue shook her head, still baring her teeth. ‘Not in my nature; or rather, my nurture,’ she said, echoing Gansey’s words back at him.

Gansey returned the favour. ‘Very clever.’

They went back to walking in companionable silence, having much to mull over. Was moving in with Blue the best option? They were still so early in their relationship, and Gansey didn’t want to ruin something so tenuous with a premature decision to cohabit. There were still things Blue didn’t know about him. There were things he didn’t know about her. She hadn’t even seen him in his glasses until the night before.

‘Oh, Christ,’ Gansey said, realising his blunder. 

‘What is it?’

‘My contact lenses are at my apartment,’ he explained. ‘I can wear the glasses to class but I don’t have time to get all the way home and back before work.’

Blue frowned adorably. ‘You can’t just wear the glasses at work tonight? I think they’re sexy.’

Gansey’s dismissal got caught in his throat. 

_ She thinks they’re sexy. _

‘I— Well— They clash with shimmer,’ Gansey blurted, and Blue seemed to enjoy his faltering. 

‘Mmhm,’ she murmured into her coffee, smirking. ‘I can get the lenses for you, and anything else you need from home. Don’t need you getting bewildered because you can’t see properly.’

‘But how will you get in?’

‘I have my ways.’

Gansey decided he didn’t want to know.

‘Could you get my toothbrush?’

‘Consider it done,’ Blue said, a concerning bit of spring infiltrating her step. Gansey wordlessly handed her his keys.

~

The Meat Market was in full swing by the time Blue got there, holding a bag of Gansey’s toiletries and other necessities: phone charger, socks, underwear, etc.. 

Adrenaline pumped its way through her, not just due to the loud music and flickering strobes, but also due to the crimes she’d committed that afternoon. 

And the fact that her bolt-cutters still sat heavy in the base of her bag. 

She spotted Gansey and her heart pounded for a different reason altogether. He was in nothing but a plaid bowtie, shiny black briefs… and his glasses. 

He was clearly playing to some kind of naughty-scholar persona, and Blue couldn’t quite drag her eyes from his ridiculously defined biceps and gyrating hips as he braced himself over a woman sat at a table with her squealing friends and ground into the air above her. 

It was so vastly different to how Gansey had been with Blue in the VIP room. With her, he’d been playful; a light in his eyes and a grin on his face. With this woman, Gansey’s face was distant almost to the point of boredom, his movements perfunctory and devoid of Gansey’s actual personality. Blue much preferred the way he was with her, but she had to admit that bored, professional Gansey was incredibly sexy too; the kind of man she could probably spend a night with, but certainly not offer to live with.

Finding a spot at the bar to wait, Blue ordered an iced tea and—not for the first time—marvelled at the fact that America would let her enter a strip club at twenty, but not let her drink anything harder than coca cola.

Gansey found her a few minutes later, looking startled and oddly nervous. 

When nothing was forthcoming from him, Blue spoke. ‘I got your contacts. Though, I see you made the glasses work for you.’

She was too busy worrying about whether or not she was blushing to notice Gansey’s distance from her. ‘Jane— Blue. I’m so sorry. This is just work, and— God, I’m so sorry you had to see that.’

Blue blinked, bewildered. ‘I know it’s work. You work here. I came here to give you these.’ She extended the contact lenses case to him.

Gansey ignored them. ‘Yes, but knowing about what I do and  _ seeing  _ it— I know there’s a difference—’

‘Hey, hey!’ Blue exclaimed, catching at his hand where it was wildly gesturing in the air. She frowned at him. He’d never expressed anything close to shame in regards to his work, and she wondered at his panic now, at the fear in his eyes, and deduced that it had been a deal breaker for other partners in the past. 

Well, it wouldn’t be a problem for her.

‘Gansey,’ Blue began calmly, rubbing her thumbs over the backs of his knuckles, ‘I know that this is just your job. I know it pays well and the hours work for you because you never, ever seem to sleep.’ She punctuated this with an eye roll that did more to soothe Gansey than her words. ‘And I know that you’re good at it. So take these contacts, give your glasses to me before they break between some girl’s thighs, and get back out there and work!’

Gansey stared at her for an age, weighing up the truth of her words and, just as Blue was about to yell at him again, Gansey grabbed her hips, picked her up off the stool, and kissed her bruisingly.

It was a quick kiss—he was still working, after all—but Blue was breathless by the time they broke apart, her legs remaining wrapped around his waist. 

‘What was that for?’ 

‘Be my girlfriend,’ Gansey breathed, glasses crooked and voice wild, but his eyes were steady. This wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. He’d been thinking about it.

Blue fired back with a counter-offer. ‘Move in with me.’

That, too, hadn’t been a spur-of-the-moment decision on her part. In truth, Blue needed someone to split the rent with, and she found herself caring for Gansey. She didn’t like the idea of him living alone, of struggling financially, of getting locked out of his home because he had a landlord who took the “lord” in his title far too seriously. 

She wanted to embrace the familiarity they had found so quickly in each other, swept up in their whirlwind with Gansey and more emotions than Blue had ever comfortably felt. If Blue had been more like her mother then she might say it was as though their souls had met in another life. Blue’s mother had always believed the soul was like a battery and could remember the other batteries they’d been crammed in the flashlight of life with, if they should meet again. 

Blue was certain that she and Gansey had powered the same light in a previous life, and she was certain that she wanted him to live with her. 

That, and he had Calla’s stamp of approval, so she knew he wasn’t a serial killer.

Gansey kissed her again, gentler this time. ‘Okay, Blue.’

‘What did you say?’ Blue checked.

Gansey grinned at her. ‘I said okay. I don’t know how far we can take this, but I want to find out.’

‘Then let’s find out,’ Blue murmured into his ear as the music got louder, and he kissed her again until they were both gasping. Blue had to push him away, dropping out of his hold with a breathless giggle. ‘Go make a living,’ she told him, taking his glasses and passing him his case. He ducked in to give her one last kiss on the cheek before heading for the restroom.

Blue sighed like a cartoon character when he was gone and caught the eye of another patron at the bar. ‘Which package included  _ that?’  _ she asked.

‘Sorry,’ Blue replied, feeling invincible. ‘Girlfriend privileges.’

~

Handing the keys back to his landlord gave Gansey a quiet sense of satisfaction. Peter’s scowl as he realised his foolishness had lost him a patron made the sensation grow to a murmur.

Blue throwing herself into his arms had happiness roaring in his ears as he spun her around the place where he’d used to live.

Gansey had signed his apartment away a week ago, and had been living with Blue ever since, with only his bare necessities in one of her drawers. Blue had tried to talk him into pursuing a lawsuit, but Gansey wouldn’t hear it; he’d been threatened with lawsuit by Aglionby Academy enough times and found the idea repulsive. No way was he going to gratify that principal by becoming like him. 

A car pulled up outside and Blue leapt back from Gansey’s arms, holding her finger out. ‘Now, I don’t want you freaking out on me.’

Gansey sighed. ‘You hired a moving service? Jane, I said I had it handled—’

‘“Hired” might be putting it strongly,’ Blue interrupted him.

Noting the defensive set of her shoulders, the odd vulnerability in her eyes, Gansey made a calculated deduction. ‘More relatives?’

_ ‘Blooooo.’ _

‘Oh, Jesus,’ Blue said, but the grin on her face betrayed her. She loved the owner of that sing-song-y voice. 

Gripping Gansey’s sleeve, Blue tugged him out to meet three people exiting a beat-up station wagon. One of them he recognised as Calla. Another was a man, built like a garden rake and clad in grey. And the last of them looked the way Gansey expected Blue would look in twenty years. 

‘Mom,’ Blue said quietly, letting go of Gansey’s hand and flying down the stairs to meet her in a crushing hug. Gansey felt a small pang as he watched Blue’s mother stroke her spiky hair. While his own mother had never been one to openly display affection, Gansey felt her absence from his life keenly when he remembered that other kinds of mothers existed. Ones that didn’t prioritise their image over their children.

Gansey cleared both his throat and his more bitter proclivities before descending the stairs to join the procession. 

‘I wish I’d had more of a heads up,’ Gansey admitted at large, feeling bedraggled in his casual moving-outfit: a tracksuit he often wore to rehearsals. 

Blue grinned at him over her mother’s shoulder, as though sensing his discomfort. ‘Need a minute to fix your hair?’

Gansey reached out to ruffle hers. ‘Ha. It’s nice to see you again, Calla,’ he said courteously before extending a hand to the man in grey, considering Blue’s mother was still wrapped up in her daughter. ‘Richard Gansey.’

The man’s face was impassive, unnervingly so. His grey eyes assessed Gansey, making him swallow. His hand felt cold where it hung between them, then positively icy when the man gripped it tightly and stepped close to Gansey.

‘I want to warn you,’ the man said in a low, toneless voice, the inexpression somehow making the words more menacing. ‘Blue has a knife and I taught her how to use it, and I taught her  _ well.  _ Hurt her at your own peril, good sir. Chances are I’ll be the one stashing your body.’

Gansey’s heart stopped. He believed every word this man was saying.

_ What in the Devil’s name have I gotten myself into here?  _ he thought.

‘Okay, Dean, I think he’s been warned,’ Blue said with an eye roll that put breath back into Gansey’s lungs. 

Dean smiled, dropping his terrifying mask to catch Blue in a quick squeeze. Gansey took the time to restart his heart and to meet Blue’s mother’s kind eyes. 

He extended his hand. ‘A pleasure to meet you, ma’am.’

‘Please call me Maura, Gansey.’

There was a mischievous twinkle in Maura’s eyes, one Gansey had often seen in Blue’s before she made a crass joke. He wondered if he was the punchline.

‘Are we moving things or what?’ Calla asked impatiently. ‘I’ve got a kickboxing class tonight that I can’t miss.’

Blue clicked her tongue. ‘Oh, but Calla, what if you pull something with all the heavy-lifting?’

Calla nodded to Dean. ‘Who said  _ anything _ about me doing any lifting?’

‘It was implied when you got in the car,’ Maura said.

‘In  _ my  _ car.’

‘Must you always bring up—’

‘Well, everyone else seems to forget it.’

‘Oh, here we go—’

Blue’s arms slung around Gansey’s shoulders, and he wrapped his around her waist. He moved his hands up to her back when he felt Dean’s eyes heavy on them. 

‘They’ll be at it for a while,’ Blue murmured at him.

Gansey pulled a face. ‘I have something I need to tell you.’

‘Mm?’

The sound of a very loud, achingly familiar car engine came from behind Gansey, and he whipped around, loosening but not relinquishing his hold on Blue. The Pig had never looked more beautiful than it did speeding down the road, cornfields on either side of it, looking as violently orange as ever.

‘Wish you looked at me like that,’ Blue joked, softening when Gansey kissed her temple. ‘You like cars?’

‘Not really, no,’ Gansey said wryly. ‘This one’s special.’

‘Oh?’

But Blue’s question was answered when Adam parked the Pig on the curb. Gansey spotted Ronan in the passenger seat and once more felt his heartbeat stutter. He didn’t know what he would do if Blue and his friends didn’t get along. He could only hope they would. 

Both of his oldest friends were incredibly important to him, but Gansey remembered how quick Blue had been to judge him at first, and fretted.

Adam’s eyes went wide at the sight of Blue, and it turned out Gansey needn’t have worried at all.

_ ‘Blue?’ _

~

Moving Gansey’s few belongings to Blue’s apartment was much easier with two cars, and Blue ended up being thankful for the extra help. Even if the extra help happened to be Adam. Adam The Good Tipper. Adam, who had politely let Orla down, and who got Blue to quiz him on his flashcards. Adam Parrish.

After loading up both cars with everything Gansey could take with him, Adam had tossed Gansey the keys to the car he’d driven. 

‘She missed you,’ he’d told him, then turned to Blue. ‘The Pig’s Gansey’s first love. You know how hard those can be to shake.’ 

Blue had laughed, ignoring Gansey’s curious looks for as long as she possibly could, but sitting in the expensive-looking, bright orange car that Adam had affectionately referred to as “The Pig,” she’d been cornered.

‘So,’ Gansey had started. ‘You two know each other?’

‘Sure. Blue makes the best joe around,’ Adam replied instantly.

Gansey seemed to come to a conclusion. ‘Adam from the café is Adam  _ Parrish?’  _

‘You say that like I know who Adam Parrish is,’ Blue had snapped.

In the rear-view mirror, Blue saw Adam’s eyebrows disappear into his dusty fringe. ‘Adam from the café, huh?’ he teased.

Blue’s cheeks burned. ‘I talk about all the regulars.’

‘Only Adam and Jesse.’

‘You’re not the only person I talk to, Gansey.’

Gansey had clicked his tongue and said, ‘Awfully defensive, Jane,’ setting Blue’s blood to boiling.

‘In Blue’s defense, I think Jesse and I  _ are  _ the only regulars.’ Adam was frowning. ‘Wait, did you give a fake name to him or me? Either way, I’m impressed.’

‘Him or I, Adam,’ Gansey corrected, nodding when Adam backhanded his shoulder, like he deserved it. Blue wondered what it was about her that made people so ready to believe she would lie about her name.

The scary guy—Blue had heard Adam call him “Ronan” but Blue refused to believe that  _ this  _ guy was the farmer that Gansey had gotten expelled for—spoke up for the first time. His voice promised just as much violence as his icy blue eyes. ‘You let him change your name?’ he asked Blue. ‘Like a foster cat.’

It was an unerring strike, aimed straight at Blue’s weakest point: her own autonomy. Ronan had figured her out in no time at all and Blue was ready to snap back. But Gansey took his hand off the gearstick for just a moment, and planted it firmly on her knee. She had sighed, reading the “please” in the gesture. This was important to him.

Turning in her seat, Blue regarded Ronan defiantly. ‘You know, Adam was right about you,’ she said, ‘you don’t look pretty at all.’

Adam floundered. ‘Blue! That’s twisting my words. I said he wouldn’t  _ appreciate  _ being called pretty—’

But, after a three-second stare-down, Ronan had grinned and thrown his head back to laugh, and that was all that mattered to Blue. He laughed like the snick of a pair of garden shears.

Back at Blue’s apartment, her mother and Dean helped to unload the cars and to restock Blue’s fridge with casserole and lasagna and blueberry pie. They couldn’t stay long, and Blue shooed them out with many complaints about her overly full fridge and all the dishes she would have to clean and return. It was how she showed gratitude. They knew that.

Calla waited in the car, painting her nails scarlet and waving like a queen when Blue shouted her goodbye. Blue waited on the steps outside her apartment for a while after they left. Gansey and his friends were inside having a loud argument about where Gansey’s bed should go, which Blue thought was ridiculous. The room really wasn’t that big, there weren’t many options.

A polite clearing of someone’s throat alerted her to Gansey’s presence before he took up sentry on the step next to her. He wrapped his arms around his knees—mirroring her position—and sighed. 

‘I’ve been kicked out of my own moving day,’ he explained.

Blue grinned behind her shoulder, not meeting his eye. ‘Why?’

‘They don’t think the middle of the room is a suitable place for a bed.’

‘Well, it’s not.’

‘It’s easy access from all angles,’ Gansey argued.

‘Exactly,’ Blue said. ‘The demons can get you so easy from any direction.’

‘Oh, Jane.’ Gansey chuckled, his cheeks reddening. ‘You’re only saying that so I’ll get scared and climb into your bed.’

‘And what if I am?’ Blue asked him, if only to watch his blush brighten. 

He poked her chin, and Blue finally looked at his eyes. At those warm eyes and their reassuring, old-coat brown irises. 

Before Gansey knew her, he may have been the kind of guy who drove an obnoxiously loud car—in both engine and paint-job. The kind of guy who fell in love with said obnoxious car. The kind of guy who blackmailed principals for friends like Ronan. And who was Blue? What kind of girl was she? The kind of girl who Adam was surprised to find dating a guy like Gansey.

But all of that didn’t matter anymore. Gansey wasn’t that kind of guy. Gansey was the kind of guy to hold a door for Blue. The kind of guy who gave as much of himself to his dancing as he did to his studies. The kind to be inexplicably covered in glitter and then shrug and mutter: “Occupational hazard,” when Blue pointed it out.

The kind of guy who took Blue’s talk of demons on the chin and returned it with unbridled flirtation.

The finger on Blue’s chin guided her face up and Gansey pressed his lips to hers. It was a quiet kiss, soft and knowing, melting Blue from the inside out. She linked their fingers together on Gansey’s knee, but before she could do anything else—

‘Richardman! Dick Three! This must be your lovely child-bride! About time you put that money to good use. Come help me with my moving gifts. There are two.’

Blue looked from the bafflingly exuberant and clearly wealthy specimen leaning out the window of his shiny car, to Gansey’s face where it was buried in his hands. All sounds of commotion from inside stopped. Then, in a booming voice that probably served him well on the farm that Blue refused to believe he lived on, Ronan yelled: ‘WHO IN SHIT INVITED CHENG?’

~

Henry Cheng’s gifts ended up consisting of vodka and more vodka, as well as a card congratulating Gansey and Blue on their wedding. Blue had shot Gansey an incredulous look at that.

Gansey worried these would all be strikes against Henry on Blue’s is-Gansey-worth-it card, but she seemed to be making a great effort to stow her tendency to judge too quickly. They sipped coke out of the cans Blue’s mother had brought over and topped them up with vodka, settling into Blue’s small living room; Ronan and Adam on the big couch, Gansey in the arm chair, Blue on the arm of the arm chair, and Henry sprawled on the floor like Kate Winslet in Titanic.

‘Tell us how the two of you came to meet,’ Henry demanded, and Gansey winced at his tone of: “dance, monkey, dance.” ‘I’m sure it’s a thrilling tale of jealousy and drama and singles crammed down Prince Gansey’s panties.’

Gansey’s fingers played with Blue’s belt where his arm encircled her. He narrowed his eyes at Henry. ‘Are you implying that I would be so unprofessional as to blur lines with the patrons of the club?’

Blue cut off Henry’s unconcerned wave. ‘To be fair, you did give me a lap dance on our first date.’

All words got clogged in Gansey’s throat. Ronan guffawed, Adam looked like suppressing his own laugh was physically painful, and Henry’s eyes danced dangerously.

‘Go on, Cerulean,’ he said. 

And Blue was one of them.

It was mesmerising to witness how effortlessly she wormed her way into their hearts. Blue had a knack for breaking down Raven Boys’ defenses, Gansey knew that first hand, but even this was unprecedented.

As the evening drew on, Blue filled the gap in their group in a way that made Gansey’s chest tighten. He wished Noah could have met Blue. He would have adored her. As it was, he watched Blue share a joke with Ronan, or meet Adam’s eye and laugh, or build on Henry’s enthusiasm, and he felt complete. He didn’t even mind that—for the better part of the night—his friends and loved ones dragged him over the proverbial coals.

‘Ugh, for every presentation we had to do—’ Adam pointed at Gansey. ‘—this one somehow managed to make it about Welsh Kings. I think half the student body wanted you dead.’

‘It’s true,’ Henry pitched in. ‘How else would I have been voted president in lieu of politics’ own protégé?’ 

‘Appreciate that, Cheng,’ Gansey said.

Henry saluted him. 

‘So this Owen Glendower was an obsession of yours, then,’ Blue said.

‘Still is,’ Adam cut in. ‘Gansey’s the resident Glendower expert. The university created a degree in Welsh Archaeology  _ for  _ him.’

‘Not just me,’ Gansey said quickly at Blue’s sharp look. ‘There was someone else who was interested.’

‘Yeah, I think he just wanted to impress you, man,’ Adam said. ‘Dude really wanted to “get to know you,” if you know what I mean.’

Gansey was aghast. ‘The one with the earring? Really?’

Blue giggled quietly beside him. ‘Poor thing, he probably pined after you for months. Meanwhile, he exists in your mind only as “the one with the earring.”’

‘Oh, hush.’ Gansey prodded Blue’s side and she jumped up.

‘Anyone need a refill?’ 

After a chorus of refusals, Blue disappeared to the kitchen. 

Henry caught Gansey’s eye. ‘For such a tiny person, she can certainly hold her liquor. Like a tiny ant carrying an entire cracker. Be careful around that one.’

Gansey laughed amiably. ‘I have been being careful but what defense do I have against a one-woman army? Her step-father threatened to help her hide my body earlier today.’ Truthfully, Gansey was still a little shaken from that encounter.

Adam nodded solemnly, sharing the sentiment. ‘He had that look, like he’d meant every word he ever said. Sleep with one eye open.’

‘Both eyes open,’ Ronan suggested. ‘So you can see whoever the fuck coming from all sides.’

‘Thank you for that, Ronan.’ Gansey raked a hand through his hair. ‘I hadn’t been that close to blacking out since the first time Blue kissed me, and for such a vastly different reason.’

Henry laughed at Ronan’s mimed whip-crack but Adam, as per usual, was too attentive to give into joviality. 

‘Had you eaten that day?’

Gansey made a noncommittal gesture, somewhere between a shrug and a grimace. ‘It was fine. It ended up being really quite enjoyable.’ 

‘I’ll say,’ Adam said dryly. He shut up when Blue reappeared and sat by Gansey’s side once more.

Blue cracked open her coke. ‘What’d I miss?’

~

At the night’s end, Gansey and Blue remained on the small arm chair, cuddled more intimately now that his friends were gone. Her cheek rested against his chest, her legs slung over the arm of the chair, and his arms around her waist. Blue was feeling pleasantly warm and buzzed. 

Unexpectedly, Blue had managed to click with Henry right off the bat. Usually he was the kind of guy whose name she would get deliberately wrong on his coffee order, just to bring him down a peg, but Henry was different. He had thoughts almost as loud as Blue’s, and he wasn’t afraid to share them. Ronan was slowly warming up to her, and she decided it would take patience for that frog to boil. Adam, on the other hand, had surprised her.

She didn’t think she considered him a friend until he addressed her as one. He’d stopped her outside with a hand on her arm.

‘Blue? We’re friends, so I know you won’t take this the wrong way but… look after him?’ 

Blue had rolled her eyes fondly. ‘No TV before homework, and I’ll have him in bed by seven.’

Adam rolled his eyes right back, but the words had made him smile. ‘I don’t mean “mother him.” He already has a mother, that’s her job.’ His face had turned serious. ‘I mean look after his heart, Blue. I think he’s given it to you without even noticing it himself.’ Adam’s voice was slow, his southern heritage poking through the clouds he’d assembled to hide it. It meant something, Blue had thought, that he’d relaxed around her enough around her to let her see those rays of truth.

He had left Blue gnawing on his words, which she had continued to do for the rest of the night.

Did Gansey truly need her to look after his heart? Had he accidentally given it to her somewhere along the line?  _ Had she given her heart to him?  _

Gansey’s fingers stroked over her temple and into her hair, the touch gentle and leisurely. ‘What are you thinking about?’

Blue nuzzled into Gansey’s neck. ‘I think I’m restless,’ she admitted.

Gansey hummed quietly. ‘Do you want to go for a walk?’

‘And be the first five minutes of a horror movie?’ Blue asked. ‘Besides, I know your eyes are closed.’

‘On the contrary,’ Gansey murmured, a smile in his voice, ‘I’ve never felt more awake.’

Ignoring the shiver that coursed through her at his words, Blue sat up to see that Gansey did indeed look awake. ‘Corny,’ she teased. ‘Hey, what did Adam say to you earlier? You looked frazzled when I came back.’

‘I don’t remember,’ Gansey lied.

‘He asked if you’d eaten on the day we first kissed.’

Gansey gave her a very patronising look, like a professor being asked a particularly invasive question by a student. ‘So you did hear him, then?’

‘How often do you skip out on food, Gansey?’ Blue asked him, point blank.

Gansey sighed heavily. ‘Sometimes I go without if I need to pay for something later in the week, but I’m always smart about it.’ At Blue’s stern look, he amended, ‘I’m _ usually  _ smart about it. That particular day I was in too much of a hurry trying to get to you.’

Cupping his face gently in her hands, Blue said, ‘Well, we have enough food in our fridge for several weeks of good eating, so you don’t have to do that anymore.’

Gansey grinned. ‘I enjoy hearing you say “we” and “our” far too much.’

Blue pecked him on the lips, then stood up. ‘I have something for you,’ she said.

‘Oh?’

Crossing the room to her MP3 player, Blue selected Beatnik Trip by Gin Wigmore, and swallowed her nerves as the music started. 

Gansey started when Blue looked over her shoulder at him and slowly moved the collar aside to expose skin. ‘Blue!’

‘You don’t want to see a drunk woman attempt her first strip-tease?’ Blue joked, turning around and starting on her blouse’s buttons.

Gansey grinned and wiped a hand down his face. ‘No, no. God, do I want to see this.’

‘Good,’ Blue said, and walked towards him.

Blue didn’t really know how to remove clothing in a sexy way, she was unpracticed in the arts of seduction, but the way Gansey’s face lit up told her that maybe she wasn’t so bad at it. 

‘Take your time,’ Gansey murmured when Blue rushed through the zipper on her skirt.

She scowled playfully at him. ‘Did I ask for pointers?’

Gansey laughed and raised his hands in surrender. ‘Please, carry on as you were.’

Soon all of Blue’s clothes were gone, and Gansey’s eyes couldn’t decide on a place to look. Blue straddled his hips, limiting his options for places to look. There was something erotic about his clothes on her bare skin.

Gansey’s thumb stroked her cheek in wonder. ‘I fear you will be the absolute death of me, Jane,’ he murmured.

Blue’s lips pulled into a smile as she looked at him. At this man who had been nothing more than a stranger on a train. A man she’d been too quick to judge and much too quick to love. He’d broken her routine into pieces and made life feel like it might be worth something more than survival, if she had someone like him by her side through it all.

‘Then drop dead, gorgeous,’ Blue whispered back, and when he kissed her it felt like coming home and burning her home down all at the same time.

THE END

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welp, it had to end somewhere and why not with a strip-tease.
> 
> Thanks again for reading!! Here's my [tumblr](https://m-ercey.tumblr.com/) and my [twitter.](https://twitter.com/m_ercey) Come say hi!! <3


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